The Game of Revenge
by Terapsina
Summary: When Lana comes back to town and begins to date Clark again she enters a game with Lex, and while playing she finds out if she loves or hates him more. Lexana


Disclaimer: Smallville and all it's characters do not belong to me, they are owned by people far richer than I am. This wasn't written to infringe upon rights of billionaires, the only thing I receive for this is reviews and as far as I know no money has exchanged hands.

AN: This is the way I think the story should have gone after Lana came back miraculously alive.

o0O0o

There was a dark part of her that hated what she was doing now, hated how she was pretending to be an innocent girl again and giving a kiss to Clark Kent. It felt like a betrayal. She wasn't married to Lex anymore, but a big part of her still felt like a Luthor and what she was doing was against everything Lana Luthor had grown into. She still loved Lex, still wanted him, desired him and she desperately missed him. But Lex Luthor had hurt her, had tried to clip the wings he had gifted her with himself and so she was going to do everything to bring him pain too. His selfishness had shattered her heart so she was going to destroy everything he ever cared about. She wanted to rip away his power, his money and the control he so thought he needed. And herself, she was going to show him that he had lost her. Even if he truthfully hadn't, not the part that counted.

She delighted in the looks he would send her way every time she kissed or even just touched his former best friend. They were a delicate mixture of pain, anger and longing, and if her heart secretly whispered back the same she ignored it.

She knew she should feel guilty about how she was using Clark to get back at Lex. And some small part of her truly felt bad about doing so, but it wasn't big enough to stop what she started. Clark had lied to her for years, had kept a secret that constantly managed to break the heart of the girl she used to think she was. He deserved this as much as her husb… ex-husband did.

Lex wasn't supposed to see through her game, but the moment she saw a drunken blonde bimbo wrapped around him moments away from devouring him whole she knew he had. After all he preferred his conquests to be unseen or at high end parties not at the bar of one of her favorite dance clubs. That didn't stop her of course she sent his way a glare and a smirk and dragged Clark out of the club her intentions for the night clear to everyone. A triumphant smile lit her face when she felt the usually cold gaze following her path with a barely controlled fury.

The game continued for months. She slept with Clark. He bedded the new secretary of the Isis Foundation. She made sure he lost billions in a new project. He sent paid-off IRS her way. She arranged for his precious castle to be ransacked by the FBI. He burned the Talon to the ground. And it went on in circles from there.

Everything finally came to heads when she went on an anniversary date with Clark. She was almost gleeful when she saw Lex sitting three tables away in what looked like a business meeting. But then something unwelcome and unplanned happened, Clark knelt down on one knee and presented her with a ring. Almost against her will her gaze was drawn towards Lex the second he happened to glance her way and they both froze. To most observers nothing in his expression changed, but she saw the tightening of his jaw, the slight widening of his eyes and the way his lips fought against pressing together. Their gazes met and she knew that if she answered the proposal with a 'yes' she would win their little game, there would be nothing he could retaliate with after that. But it would mean marrying Clark Kent, it would mean forever being the small-town princess that hid what she was behind a facade she herself despised. The question in front of her wasn't whether she wanted to marry Clark, it was whether she wanted revenge more than she wanted to forgive Lex and let them be together again. After all she knew that they loved each other, it was the trust part that had destroyed their marriage.

Before she could make a decision Lex Luthor, the most powerful man in Smallville and Metropolis stood up and left the restaurant. And for a second longer she just sat frozen in indecision, but then she stood and ran after the man she despite herself still thought of as her husband, never looking back at the still kneeling Clark. In the end Lana Lang was just a facade that hid Mrs. Luthor, it was time to stop playing and talk about the reason their game was started in the first place.

It took Lana three more years before she was willing to remarry Lex Luthor. Because although in the end she loved her husband more than she hated him, she still needed to be able to trust him again. It took many more pleasant little games and countless lawyers before the most complicated marriage contract of the twenty-first century was written and executed.

By the time Superman showed up on the world's radar Lana Luthor was almost as hated as her husband, but it didn't matter because she had never in her life felt more loved or free.


End file.
